


Seeing Red

by epersonae



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, I don't think they technically died, IPRE, tfw your love language is necromancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 13:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11533509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae
Summary: For once in his life, Barry Bluejeans isn't nervous.





	Seeing Red

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hops](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hops/gifts).



> Based on a prompt from hops/maegnus, pushing my boundaries a bit writing some BBJ.

He’s been nervous about almost everything for his entire life. Everything except science -- including, it should be said, the arcane sciences. And now everything except this. Because this is the arcane science that he knows better than almost anyone who has ever lived, and it’s her, and maybe he was nervous about her, half a century ago, but he almost doesn’t remember who that man was, the one who was nervous. How could he have been nervous about Lup?

So he’s not actually nervous about this. Sure he’s got a healthy apprehension. It’s a big deal, becoming a lich, and not something he had planned out for his life. But nobody plans for being chased by the apocalypse, and as long as Lup is there, he’s sure it’ll be okay. He can see her shoot a gigantic fireball and he just smiles. The blooming of fire, it blooms in his heart. How can he not be secure with her even into undeath?

The sun is shining on this silent world on the day they choose for the transformation. The leaves on the trees tremble in a slight breeze. He holds her hand the whole way up to the hill that they had picked together. And they’re wearing their best uniform robes, clean and pressed, bright red in the morning light.

For half a heartbeat, he’s disappointed to see Taako walk up, but Lup’s eyes light up, and he’d never want anything in life or death to dampen that fire. Taako’s eyes, on the other hand, are wide and anxious. It’s an odd sensation for him, to be so calm while someone else is so nervous. He finds his breathing is even more still, his hands warm with Lup’s hand in his: she’s trembling, too, but the longer he holds her hand, the more she falls into his rhythm of breathing.

They work together in a rhythm of perfect habit, each rune laid out in its order, until the whole is set out around the whalebone pillar. It’s done, it’s ready, and somehow he’s still not nervous.

“You ready?” asks Lup. “Are— are you sure you’re gonna be able to keep it together, once you turn?” 

What else can he say? “Yeah, I got this.”

Because he’s never had anything in his life as much he has this right now. Maybe he sees red, for just a moment, and he sees the power and the terror of this trip into undeath. But he remembers her, Lup, perfect Lup on their perfect day, and all the days before that, stretching back across decades, her hand in his. And he’s calm, and he’s in his body, and he thinks maybe he doesn’t need to be nervous ever again.


End file.
